Brent Venables' win over Kalen De Boer is an earthquake in SEC football

Things change quickly all the time in college football. Look at how quickly James Franklin went from being a national title contender to the unemployment line at Penn State this year. However, as fast as the pace of change has been, few coaching dramas in 2025 have been more impressive than the transformation of SEC football written by Oklahoma's Brent Venables. He smoked Kalen DeBoer and Alabama on Saturday to take a big step toward the College Football Playoff.

We can all tell right away that Oklahoma's win over Alabama was a pretty big deal, but it's worth delving into the deeper details here to emphasize the point. This is something of an SEC football earthquake — not in the sense that it's sudden, but in the magnitude of the impact and the severity of the shift in the coaches' overall attitude.

Let's tell these stories:

Brent Venables

Brent Venables has a well-deserved reputation as an elite defensive tactician. There were two ways for him to move up at Oklahoma: 1) find a quarterback and offensive coordinator who could dramatically improve that side of the ball; 2) Be so strong in defense that the number 1 doesn't matter.

Venables used Track 2, but more importantly, Venables changed the course of the conversation in Oklahoma.

Leave mediocrity behind

Brent Venables had an average performance in the 2024 season. One month ago, after losing to Ole Miss, Oklahoma had two losses heading into the SEC schedule. Now, Venables has wins over Tennessee and Alabama on the road. Oklahoma only has to hold serve at home against Missouri and LSU to make the CFP. It is not only easy, but legitimate and justifiable, to think that Venables has turned a corner at OU.

Beat Lincoln Riley

Brent Venables and Lincoln Riley have both coached in college football, but not at their current schools. Oklahoma is in a position to beat Riley and USC in the CFP if the Trojans lose to Oregon and Oklahoma wins its next two games. This is very important in Norman – certainly more so than in Los Angeles, where interest in sports and entertainment is not as focused on college football as it is in the south-central plains.

Texas traffic

Brent Venables was dusted by Steve Sarkisian and the Texans in head-to-head competition earlier this year. It's not as if Oklahoma's offense was special or even above average, but Oklahoma has truly and undeniably surpassed Texas in the CFP hierarchy. Making the playoff while Texas isn't would be huge for the Sooners. This is part of the SEC football earthquake we are referring to.

Callen Debord

While Brent Venables has had a massive turnaround over the past month, Kalen DeBoer is back in trouble at Alabama. His loss to Florida State sent the Eagles hovering, but then he won at Georgia and authored a string of wins on the road, putting Alabama in prime position to make the SEC Championship and the CFP.

This loss to Oklahoma doesn't ruin Alabama's season, but it does put DeBoer one loss away from ruin. It's a dramatic change for a coach who seemed to be riding high as Nick Saban's successor.

Auburn Crucible

Kalen De Boer, if he's going to succeed at Alabama, must — must — win an Iron Bowl at Auburn. If everything is allowed to slip away — the SEC title, the playoff, the Iron Cup — in two weeks, the pitchforks will come out again in Tuscaloosa. A loss to Auburn, in a year in which the Tigers have struggled, would erode faith and confidence that DeBoer is a worthy successor to Nick Saban, someone Bama fans can believe in.

Bill Curry

Bill Curry wasn't a bad coach at Alabama. Won the SEC Championship. He made a sugar bowl. However, in addition to committing the sin of not being Bear Bryant, Curry was unable to win the Iron Bowl. Notably, Curry coached at Alabama when the series disappeared from Legion Field in Birmingham on an annual basis. Auburn hosted Alabama in 1989 and beat the Tide. Even when Curry had a really good team, he couldn't solve Auburn's problem. For this reason, Carey did not continue in his position despite respectable results.

This is what Kalin de Boer faces.

1 month ago

In October, Kallen DeBoer appeared to have figured out how to coach at Alabama, and Brent Venables was teetering on the brink of irrelevance and another failed season at Oklahoma. And here they are in completely different locations.

Things change very quickly in college football.

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